Lecture 3

Earthquake Engineering
Lecture 3
Sasanka Borah, PhD

Civil Engineering Department, Assam Engineering College
Determination of Hypocenter or
Earthquake Focus
 Seismologists use the elapsed time between the arrival of a P-waves and S-
waves at a given site to assist them in estimating the distance from the site to
the center of energy release. The distance of focus from the observation station
is determined by the relative arrival times of the P and S waves. The distance
from hypocenter to observation point is given by
Where,
T=difference in time of arrival of P and S waves at an observation point;
S=distance from hypocenter to observation point;
Vp and Vs are the velocity of P and S waves, respectively.
Where,
T=difference in time of arrival of P and S
waves at an observation point;
S=distance from hypocenter to observation
point;
Vp and Vs are the velocity of P and S waves,
respectively.
Condition: Recordings at
three stations minimum
MEASURING AN EARTHQUAKE
 Magnitude
 Intensity
Intensity
 The intensity of an earthquake refers to the degree of
destruction caused by it. In other words, intensity of an
earthquake is a measure of severity of the shaking of ground and its
attendant damage.
 Intensity is the oldest measure of earthquake.
 Numerous intensity scales have been developed over the last several
hundred years to evaluate the effects of earthquakes, the most
popular is the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) Scale. This
scale, composed of 12 increasing levels of intensity that range from
imperceptible shaking to catastrophic destruction, is designated by
Roman numerals.
Intensity Scales
 Modified Mercalli Intensity(MMI)
Scale
 Mendvedev-Spoonheuer-Karnik
scale (MSK 64).
 Rossi-Forel (RF) scale
 Japanese Meteorological Agency
(JMA) intensity scale
Relationships
With Peak Ground Velocity
Vg is the peak ground velocity in cm/sec
by Wald et.al, (1999) based on Californian

earthquake database
With Peak Ground Acceleration
Magnitude
The magnitude is a number that characterizes the relative size of an
earthquake. Magnitude is based on measurement of the maximum motion
recorded by a seismograph. Several scales have been defined, but the most
commonly used are
(1) Local magnitude (ML), commonly referred to as "Richter magnitude",
(2) Surface-wave magnitude (Ms),
(3) Body-wave magnitude (Mb), and
(4) Moment magnitude (Mw).
Scales 1-3 have limited range and applicability and do not satisfactorily measure
the size of the largest earthquakes. The moment magnitude (Mw) scale, based
on the concept of seismic moment, is uniformly applicable to all sizes of
earthquakes but is more difficult to compute than the other types. All
magnitude scales should yield approximately the same value for
any given earthquake
Source: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/glossary/?term=magnitude
Richter Magnitude, ML
Proposed by Charles Francis Richter in 1979
based on the data from Californian earthquakes, defined the earthquake
magnitude as the logarithm to the base 10 of the largest displacement of a
standard seismograph (called Wood-Anderson Seismograph with properties
T=0.8 sec; m=2800; and damping nearly critical ≈0.8) situated 100 km from the
focus.
For instrument located at an epicentral distance of 100 km
A = the amplitude in micron (10-6m) recorded by; and

M = the magnitude of the earthquake
For instrument located at an epicentral distance of other than 100 km a correction is
introduced to the equation
M = the magnitude of the earthquake;

Δ =distance from epicenter (km),
MΔ= magnitude of the earthquake calculated for earthquake using the values
measured at a distance Δ from the epicenter.
The graphical form of this modified procedure is
Source: Richter’s (1958), Elementary Seiemology

Moment magnitude, Mw
Over the years, scientists observed that different magnitude scales had
saturation points and the magnitudes estimated by different approaches did not
point to a unique value of earthquake size The Richter magnitude saturates at
about 6.8, and the surface wave magnitude at about 7.8. In addition, these magnitude
estimates did not have a linear relation with the energy released due to
earthquake rupture. To address these short falls, Hanks and Kanamori, in 1979
proposed a magnitude scale, termed as ‘moment magnitude’, based on the
seismic moment due to earthquake rupture. The moment magnitude is given by
 Proposed by Hanks and Kanamori (1979) based on the

seismic moment due to earthquake rupture
Where, Mw is the moment magnitude, M0 is the seismic moment in N-m

In addition to the magnitude scales as discussed,
Surface wave magnitude, Ms , based on the amplitude of Rayleigh waves

having a period of about 20 seconds,
Body wave magnitude, Mb based on the amplitude of first few P wave cycles are
also being used.
Next Class
 Magnitude Numericals
 Earthquake Energy
 Earthquake Energy Numericals
 Comparison of Magnitude and Intensity

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Earthquake Engineering

Sasanka Borah, PhD

Vg is the peak ground velocity in cm/sec

by Wald et.al, (1999) based on Californian

A = the amplitude in micron (10-6m) recorded by; and

M = the magnitude of the earthquake;

Source: Richter’s (1958), Elementary Seiemology

 Proposed by Hanks and Kanamori (1979) based on the

Where, Mw is the moment magnitude, M0 is the seismic moment in N-m

Surface wave magnitude, Ms , based on the amplitude of Rayleigh waves

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